A Wise and Courageous Man: The Depiction of Jesus in John (original) (raw)
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https://www.augsburgfortress.org/store/product/9781451470062/Encountering-Jesus. Applying a comprehensive theory of character to the Gospel of John, Cornelis Bennema provides a fresh analysis of both the characters and their responses to Jesus. While the majority of scholars view most Johannine characters as “flat,” Bennema demonstrates that many are complex, developing, and “round.” John’s broad array of characters and their responses to Jesus correspond to people and their choices in real life in any culture and time. This book highlights how John’s Gospel seeks to challenge its readers, past and present, about where they stand in relation to Jesus.
La caractérisation du personnage Jésus dans la narration des Actes des Apôtres
2016
Si la théologie lucanienne de la résurrection a largement été étudiée dans le livre des Actes des Apôtres, Jésus n’a jamais été considéré comme personnage principal, à l’inverse des apôtres, de l’Esprit saint ou même de Dieu. Pourtant, le premier verset des Actes laisse entendre que Jésus va continuer de faire et d’enseigner ce qu’il avait commencé dans l’évangile, même si, peu de temps après l’ouverture du récit, il quitte la scène. Pour chercher à comprendre ce paradoxe, une analyse approfondie de la mise en récit du personnage Jésus dans les Actes était nécessaire. Le premier chapitre de cette thèse introduit le sujet, l’état de la question et deux approches méthodologiques empruntées aux experts de la caractérisation narrative. Au chapitre deux, après avoir introduit la difficulté d’identification du personnage qui se trouve derrière le titre Seigneur des Actes, le cadre épistémologique d’Elizabeth Struthers Malbon permet d’observer le comment en classant toutes les péricopes qui participent à la rhétorique de la caractérisation christologique en cinq catégories : (1) la christologie représentée qui montre ce que Jésus fait, (2) la christologie détournée qui permet d’entendre ce que Jésus dit en réponse aux autres personnages, (3) la christologie projetée qui laisse entendre ce que les autres personnages ou le narrateur disent à Jésus et à son sujet, (4) la christologie réfléchie qui montre ce que les autres personnages font en reflétant ce que Jésus a dit et (5) la christologie reflétée qui montre ce que les autres personnages font en reflétant ce que Jésus a fait. Ensuite, avec le chapitre trois, l’approche de John Darr donne à comprendre le pourquoi de la caractérisation par l’observation de quatre activités cognitives du lecteur : (1) l’anticipation et la rétrospection, (2) la recherche de cohérence, (3) l’identification et/ou l’implication et (4) la défamiliarisation. Enfin, au chapitre quatre, les résultats des deux méthodes sont comparés pour proposer une solution au cas de l’ouverture paradoxale des Actes. D’abord les différentes observations de la thèse montrent que le personnage Jésus n’est pas si absent du récit; puis la rhétorique narrative de la caractérisation conduit le lecteur à comprendre que c’est essentiellement au travers des personnages du récit que Jésus est présent en actes et en paroles. Though Luke’s theology of resurrection is widely studied in the Book of Acts, Jesus is never seen as its main character, unlike the apostles, the Holy Spirit or God. However, the first verse of Acts suggests that the Jesus character will continue to do and teach what he began in the Gospel, even if soon after the opening, he leaves the scene. To resolve this paradox, a thorough analysis of Jesus characterization in Acts is needed. The first chapter of this dissertation introduces the subject, what has already been said, and two narrative scholars’ methodologies selected for this study. In chapter two, the difficult identification of the Lord of Acts is discussed. Then, the epistemological framework of Elizabeth Struthers Malbon is considered. It shows how characterization works, by ranking all episodes involving Jesus in five groups : (1) enacted Christology : what Jesus does; (2) deflected Christology : what Jesus says in response to other characters; (3) projected Christology : what other characters and the narrator say to and about Jesus; (4) mirroring Christology : what other characters do that mirrors what Jesus says and (5) reflected Christology : what other characters do that mirrors what Jesus does. Chapter three discusses the method of John Darr which helps us to understand the why by observing four cognitive activities of the reader: (1) anticipation and retrospection; (2) consistency-building; (3) identification and (4) defamiliarization. In the conclusion in chapter four, the results of the two systems are compared to resolve the case of the paradoxical opening of Acts. The main conclusion of the different observations of this thesis shows that Jesus is not so absent from the story. Thus the narrative rhetoric of characterization leads the reader to understand that Jesus is mainly present through the characters of the story in acts and words.
The Matthean characterisation of Jesus by John the Baptist
In die Skriflig / In Luce Verbi, 2020
This article focusses on how this interaction presents the characterisation of Jesus in the First Gospel, Matthew. In this Gospel, material about John predominates in chapters 3 and 11. Meier (1980:387) pointedly refers to Matthew 3 as 'the Baptist's view of Jesus and himself' and to the first half of Matthew 11 as 'Jesus' view of the Baptist and himself'. In addition to these two chapters, shorter references to the interaction or relation between Jesus and John are made in Matthew 14, 16, 17 and 21. This article explores all these passages that emphasise the relation and interaction between Jesus and John. While verses are explored in which explicit interaction between Jesus and John is narrated, these verses are read within their immediate contextual narrated scenes. While attending to Matthew's narrative, comparisons are made with parallel passages in the other Synoptic Gospels to further sharpen the discussion of the Matthean narrator's unique contribution. 1.The 'story' of a narrative includes events, setting and characters (Kingsbury 1986:9; Powell 2009:45-52). Authors bring characters to life by way of characterisation (Anderson 1994:78; Powell 1990:51; Tolmie 1999:41). Characterisation can take place by letting the characters act and speak by themselves, or to let other characters talk to or about them, or to react towards them. See Viljoen (2018a:3-6) for a more extensive discussion of how characterisation is established in a narrative text. 2.The Gospels are read as narratives with references to their so-called narrative worlds, without invalidating their historical references. The basis of this approach is that the biblical texts are historical, as they stem from a historical context. They are primarily referential, referring to entities beyond the texts themselves, and not purely 'literary'. The narrators wrote historical narratives, addressing religious communities that were confronted with real social and historical issues (Viljoen 2018a:2). It goes without saying that Jesus is the protagonist, the main character, in the Gospel narratives. Much of this characterisation is achieved by presenting his speech and actions. As his speech and actions occur in relation to other major and minor characters in the narrative, much of the characterisation is achieved by presenting the interaction between Jesus and these other characters. Among humans, John the Baptist acts as Jesus' main supporting character. He is portrayed as a reliable witness to Jesus' life, of the one to come. This article focusses on the characterisation of Jesus in the First Gospel, based on examining his relation to and interaction with John. Passages in this Gospel narrating the relation and interaction between John and Jesus are explored to identify Jesus' character traits. These are multi-faceted and relates to Messianic expectations described in Jewish writings. Yet, the Matthean narrator argues that Jesus surpasses these expectations-even those of John the Baptist himself.
Honest to John! A Response to the Reviews of The Fourth Gospel and the Quest for Jesus
2008
Jesus of history. As they all acknowledge, the disjunction of these two subjects has been the prevalent modern paradigm for conducting both Johannine and Jesus studies in recent decades, but such a move has its own sets of new critical problems. While this book calls attention to those new problems, it also seeks to find solutions to the original issues that modern critical theories have tried to address. In doing so, it seeks to build on the most plausible of literary and tradition-development theories, even if new approaches and syntheses are required. In taking seriously the character and claims of the Johannine tradition, however, this approach attempts to be honest to John. On that score, critical and traditional approaches alike have too often fallen dismally short. Jeff Staley has done an excellent job of describing the overall thrust of the book. He rightly notes the importance of the literary theories the book advances, including their implications for a plausible view of the development of the Johannine tradition. His introduction also points helpfully to the connections between the historical subject of the Fourth Gospel, Jesus and the unfolding history of the Johannine situation. As one who has appreciated Staley's literary-rhetorical analyses of John over the last two decades or more, I hope to benefit from the best of reader-response and new literary-critical approaches to John while not assuming that fictive literary function implies a fictional character and origin of the narrative. In that sense, historical narrative functions in many ways similar to fictive narrative. And, one literary characteristic claimed by the Johannine narrator is that at least some of the origin of John's tradition is rooted in first-hand encounter with the ministry of Jesus. While it is impossible to prove that any or all of John's material goes back to an independent Jesus tradition, just as it is impossible to prove that none of it does, the overlooked reference to the apostle John's making a statement with an undeniably Johannine ring to it in Acts 4.20 (cf. 1 Jn 1.3) makes this a critically plausible consideration. 'We cannot help but testify to what we have seen and heard!' could not have been crafted as a more characteristically Johannine utterance, and while it may be misguided or wrong, it was written by Luke a full century before Irenaeus. Since the writing of the book, I have found another three dozen ways in which Luke departs from Mark and sides with John, doubling the evidence for Luke's dependence on the Johannine tradition in its oral stages, as argued in Part III. The point is that the 16. This chapter was first presented in 2003 at the John, Jesus, and History Consultation under the title, 'Why this Study is Needed, and Why it is Needed Now', and it is now published in Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just and Tom Thatcher (eds.), John, Jesus, and History. I. Critical Assessments of Critical Views (Symposium Series, 44; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2007), pp. 13-70. The John, Jesus, and History Project is scheduled to go from 2002-2010 at the national SBL meetings, involving three triennia covering (1) literature reviews and introductory matters, (2) aspects of historicity in John and (3) Johannine contributions to Jesus research.
Both literary theory and biblical narrative criticism lack an articulate, comprehensive theory of character. Many Gospel critics perceive character in the Hebrew bible (where characters can develop) to be radically different from that in ancient Greek literature (where characters are supposedly consistent ethical types). Most people also sharply distinguish between modern fiction and its psychological, individualistic approach to character and ancient characterization where character lacks personality or individuality. In Part I, we examine concepts of character in ancient Hebrew and Greek literature as well as modern fiction, arguing that although there are differences in characterization, these are differences in emphases rather than kind. It is better to speak of degrees of characterization along a continuum. In Part II, we develop a comprehensive theory of character in the Fourth Gospel, consisting of three aspects. First, we study character in text and context, using information in the text and other sources. Second, we analyse and classify the Johannine characters along three dimensions (complexity, development, inner life), and plot the resulting character on a continuum of degree of characterization (from agent to type to personality to individuality). We observe that many Johannine characters are more complex and round than has been believed so far. Third, we analyse and evaluate the characters' responses to Jesus in relation to the Fourth Evangelist's evaluative point of view, purpose and dualistic worldview.